Product Description

'The Upanisads' is the Hindu equivalent of the Christian New Testament. It is a collection of spiritual treatises written in Sanskrit between 800 and 400 BCE. Typically an Upanisad recounts one or more sessions of teaching, often setting each within the story of how it came to be taught. These thirteen texts, the principal Upanisads, are devoted to understanding the inner meaning of the religion: they explicate its crucial doctrines - rebirth, the law of karma, the means of conquering death, and of achieving detachment, equilibrium and spiritual bliss. They emphasise the perennial search for true knowledge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #320118 in Books
• Published on: 2004-01-29
• Original language: Sanskrit
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 590 pages

About the Author
Valerie Roebuck is a Buddhist, practising and teaching meditation in the Samatha tradition. She is currently the Honorary Secretary of Manchester Interfaith Forum and an Honorary Research Associate of the University of Mancheste and author of The Circle of Stars: An Introduction to Indian Astrology (Element Books, 1992).

Customer Reviews

Spiritual fusion
Juan Mascaro, a Majorcan, was an academic in Ceylon, Barcelona and Cambridge. He had a deep understanding of Catholic Mysticism. His 40 page introduction to this translation of some of the Upanishads is a good way to understand the similarity between Hinduism and Catholicism. This is not apparent on a superficial glance at the religions, and Christians need to read the introduction and then the Upanishads, when it will prove quite a revelation. In fact, it will help in the understanding of Christian mysticism: Brahman (God) is joy and love, too!

HOLY BREATH
Of all the translations of the Upanishads I have not read any which compare to the simple clarity and lucidity of this translation of some of the principle works. Juan Mascaro seems to have found a way of rendering these ancient texts in simple, poetic language which resonates across the divide of words. All other translations I have read have perhaps been more academic, but they fall down completely on fluidity and clarity. Too many of them are dry and smack of 'translationese'. Mascaro manages to make you feel that this is exactly the way in which the Upanishads might have been communicated in English.

Anyone interested in spirituality, or who has had a sense of the Divine in ordinary life, should read these works. Their wisdom underlies just about all spirituality since. Someone above mentions that the Upanishads have a similar message to Christianity. This is essentially true, but there is no suffering or concept of sin and self-punishment in the Upanishads. Nevertheless Christianity was a major attempt at conveying as directly as possible the Upanishadic vision - that God resides in us as well as everything else. Christ is the embodiment of Brahmanic Man and shows us how we can all have that experience. This not what we hear that much in Christianity these days, although it was exactly what Christianity started with. Thus the Upanishads teach us how to read the Gospels. Go read!

A good translation
This book should be of interest to you, if you want to study ancient Indian text, that forms part of the foundation for Hinduism. Wether or not, you consider this subject worthwhile of study is your own descision. If you couldn't care less about ancient Indian texts, then I doubt that this book will arouse an interest in you. If you do care about ancient Indian text, then this is the definitive translation. Dr. Paul R. Fleischmann dedicates an entire chapter of his brilliant book "Cultivating Inner Peace" to Juan Mascaros abilities as a translator. If you have previously given up on understanding, what's the big deal about the texts that founds the foundation of Hinduism, then this translation might change your mind. Juan Mascaro is a man, who has lived a simple life, and has experiental understanding of the values of this life. That shines through in this translation, and that is why it is worth reading.